The present invention relates to computer telephony integration (CTI), and more particularly to allowing users to customize and upgrade CTI""s.
The telephone is among the most widely used communication equipment in the world. At first, telephones were merely convenient tools to allow people to communicate while physically separated. More recently, many people and organizations use telephones to market products and services, to provide technical support for consumer products, to allow callers to access their own financial data, and so forth. Thus, telephone is becoming a major business and marketing tool.
In order to more effectively use telephones systems for business and marketing purposes, call centers have been developed. In a call center, a number of agents handle telephone communication with callers. The matching of calls between callers and agents is typically performed by software operating in conjunction with computerized switching equipment.
A simple example is used here to describe a few of the many advantages of using call centers. When a call is made to a call center, the telephone number of the calling line is typically made available to the call center by a telephone carrier. Based on this telephone number, software in the call center can access a database server to obtain information about the caller, using the caller""s phone number as a key. The software routes the incoming call to an agent who can best handle the call based on predefined criterion (e.g., language skill, knowledge of products the caller bought, etc.). The software also causes the information about the caller, retrieved from the database, to be immediately transferred to a computer screen used by the agent. Thus, the agent can gain valuable information about the caller as the call is terminated, or even prior to receiving the call. As a result, the agent can more effectively handle the telephone transaction.
It can be seen from the above example that the enabling technology requires a combination of telephone switching and computer information processing technologies. The term commonly used for such combined technology is computer-telephony-integration (CTI).
In the past, various applications have been developed in association with the computer information processing technologies of CTI. Such applications are often referred to as service desk software. In use, the service desk software facilitates -access to data in a database that is accessible during a telephone call. As mentioned earlier, the data is identified in the database automatically by first ascertaining the identity of a caller using a telephone switch. With this information and under the direction of the service desk software, an operator may access desired data pertinent to providing a particular type of customer service.
Often, the hardware associated with the telephone switching and computer information processing technologies may be implemented in various environments for different business purposes. In each of these different business situations, however, particular service desk software frequently must be written for tailoring to the needs of the particular application of the CTI. For example, the type of data and method of accessing the same may be different for a credit card company customer service call center, a merchandise purchasing call center, etc. This continuous need to develop specific software for specific tasks leads to significant costs. Further, the time involved in such a task is also problematic.
There is thus a need for service desk software that allows customizable use of CTI hardware for particular business environments in an efficient, cost-effective manner.
A system, method and computer program product are provided for retrieving records in, for example, a computer telephony integration (CTI) architecture. Initially, a telephone call is received from a user. During the telephone call, an identifier associated with the user is ascertained. Information associated with the user is then retrieved utilizing the identifier. In use, the retrieval of the information is based on criterion that is customizable. By allowing the customization of the retrieval of information, an efficient and cost-effective system is provided for specifically tailoring CTI architecture for use in particular business environments.
In a preferred embodiment, the identifier may be stored in a database. As an option, the criterion may be customizable via a graphical user interface. By this design, various visual tools such as pull-down menus, etc. may be employed to facilitate the customization process. In one aspect of a preferred embodiment, the criterion may customizable by allowing the selection of one of a plurality of sets of predetermined criterion. Each set may be representative of a predetermined group of users.
In another preferred embodiment, the retrieved information may be displayed. Further, the information may be displayed based on the customizable criterion. As an option, various pop-up windows may be employed in a customized fashion for displaying the information.
In still another preferred embodiment, the criterion may specify which information is retrieved using the identifier. Such information may be retrieved from a record table. In such embodiment, the criterion may specify which of a plurality of record tables are to be accessed to retrieve the information.
As an option, the user may be prompted to input the identifier based on the customizable criterion. Such identifier may be of any type including, but not limited to a social security number, telephone number, or any other identifier unique to the user.